The little old lady glanced up to see if he were smiling. He was not. He never was when she suspected him of it.
“I’m afraid I’ll never get them straightened out again,” she sighed.
“So much the better for you,” he assured her. “What you really ought to do, Aunt Philomela, is to take up gambling.”
“What?” she demanded sharply.
He nodded blandly.
“If I ever have the opportunity I’ll teach you draw poker.”
“The least anyone can do at my age is to refrain from acquiring bad habits,” she answered.
“On the contrary, your age is the only safe age in which to indulge in them,” he argued. “Nothing keeps one so young as the element of uncertainty. That is why I recommend gambling. But you can gamble a little, even with your accounts; you can let them run so that you will never quite know where you stand. Some such excitement would brace you up wonderfully.”
“Bah!” she observed, with something of her old-time scorn.
“You made a good beginning,” he suggested, “when you bought into ‘The Lucky Find.’ Mining stocks are always a good gamble.”